Published: May 20, 2009 08:08 am      

Teacher threatens 500 people

KCHS teacher faces felony charges for making mass-murder threats during class

By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

A Knox Central High School teacher was arrested Tuesday evening for allegedly threatening to kill 500 people and “make national news” at KCHS before the end of the school year.

Jason Davis, 28, was arrested at about 6 p.m. on felony charges of second-degree terroristic threatening after allegedly making the statements to two different classrooms last Wednesday. According to his arrest warrant, Davis said “he would like to relieve stress” by killing about 500 people. He also allegedly said he would, or the high school would, make national headlines on or before the last day of school next Friday.

The statements were made between the first and fourth class periods and overheard by “several” students, said Officer Brian Senters with the Barbourville Police Department.

“This guy started having a horrible day, and it progressively got worse,” he said. By the end of the day, Superintendent Walter T. Hulett had spoken to Davis and suspended him for the rest of that week. Officers met with school officials Thursday morning about the incident.

“... The school board had done their own internal investigation and had a really good jump start on everything. They had done the best they could outside of a criminal charge,” Senters said. “Mr. Hulett gave me copies from statements from faculty and staff and students. After that meeting, the school board decided to go ahead and suspend him the rest of the school year.”

Senters said the district would have been taking “a very huge risk allowing this guy to come back to school.”

Officers hand-delivered a letter to Davis stating the teacher was banned from school property, school functions, and from contacting school personnel or students while police continued their criminal investigation.

“We attempted to make sure we had everything needed before we made any arrests,” Senters said. “We tried not to make it a witch hunt.”

Senters said he interviewed several students and teachers, and had another meeting with school officials Tuesday before making the arrest.

During the arrest, officers conducted a quick sweep of Davis’ residence but did not see any weapons, Senters said.